Dems hold the line with Perriello

In the last days of the 2010 campaign, the first-term Virginia congressman’s reelection bid has become a rallying point for Democrats nationwide, as party leaders and left-leaning interest groups scramble to ensure that at least one vulnerable liberal lawmaker is left standing after Nov. 2.

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President Barack Obama is headed Friday to Charlottesville, the populous college town at the heart of Perriello’s district, to drum up support for him. Obama praised Perriello during a mid-October rally in Washington, calling him a “great guy” who has taken risky votes and “just done what’s right.” The president talked about him again on “The Daily Show” Wednesday night.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has kept investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in the district, while cutting loose other at-risk members across the country.

More important, liberal independent groups have deployed an incredible sum — about $1.6 million over a 10-day period ending midday Thursday — to prop up Perriello and attack his Republican opponent, state Sen. Robert Hurt. At least a half-dozen pro-Democratic groups have spent six-figure sums over that period, and four — the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, the National Education Association and the America’s Families First Action Fund — have each put in more than a quarter-million dollars.

“I’ve never seen anything like it, ever,” said University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato, who’s one of Perriello’s constituents. “You can’t turn on the television without seeing 10 ads in a row, and I would say seven are for Perriello.”

It’s a surprising rescue mission for a congressman long thought to be among his party’s most vulnerable members. Perriello’s support for the stimulus package and health care reform was viewed as politically perilous; his vote for cap-and-trade legislation seemed almost suicidal in a heavily rural district in a coal-producing state.

Heavyweight conservative groups such as Americans for Job Security and the 60 Plus Association, which have spent generously to support Republican House candidates, have largely moved on from the district, assuming Perriello’s defeat is a done deal in this political climate.

But Perriello has managed a difficult feat, capturing the affection of his party’s activist base and the White House at the same time. And he’s kept his race just competitive enough that national Democrats have been loath to disengage.